Reservation Blues

In Reservation Blues, Sherman Alexie extensively uses dreams to portray the relationship between white people and Native Americans. The dreams depict a constant struggle between the two societies, as well as a gradual extinction of the Indian culture. A complete picture of the Native American way of life could be seen from examining these dreamsand its not a pretty one. None of the dreams are positive or reveal anything good about the Indian way of life. If anything, Sherman Alexie tries to show the humiliation and poverty that the Native Americans are forced to live in, all the while being scolded by whites for rebelling against this degrading way of life.

Through his use of dreams as a portal to express his opinions, Sherman Alexie brings out a number of issues concerning the Native Americans that would not be obvious to an outsider. One of such issues is the amount of coverage that the Indians get by the media. Since they have been forced to move to the reservations, Indians (aside from stereotypical Westerns) have practically disappeared off the television screens. That, in itself is very unfortunate. Had the general population of US witnessed the level of life of the Native Americans, the reservations would undoubtedly get aid that they desperately need. Another negative aspect of inadequate media coverage is that the Indians do not have any cultural role models to look up to. All they see on TV or hear about on the radio are the achievements of white man. Sherman Alexie very effectively portrays that in the book through one of Thomas's dreams: "He turned on his television to watch white people live. [It] constantly reminded Thomas of all he never owned. Thomas searched the television for evidence of Indians until his hands ached."

Another theme that seems to appear in most of the dreams in the book is the treatment of Native Americans by the white people. It is always shown in negative light. Victor has a dream about big, powerful white people...

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...In the novel ReservationBlues, Sherman Alexie utilizes the characters dreams to illustrate the relationship between the Native Americans and the white people. These dreams show an ongoing struggle amongst the two societies, in addition to the deterioration of the Indian culture. These dreams are better described as nightmares because not a single one of the dreams are positive and bare anything respectable about the Native American society. Sherman Alexie attempts to disclose the humiliation and poverty that the Native Americans have to endure, all the while being scolded by whites for rebelling against this degrading way of life.
Sherman Alexie very effectively portrays that in the book through one of Thomas’s dreams: “He turned on his…television to watch white people live. [It] constantly reminded Thomas of all he never owned. Thomas searched the television for evidence of Indians…until his hands ached.”
Victor has a dream about big, powerful white people “shoveling hair into burning barrels, furnaces, and open fires. Long, black hair.”
In Father Arnold’s dream, the white men rely on the Indians’ faith to keep the latter in control. The missionaries basically force the Indians into submission through the use of fear, all the while claiming to be acting in the name of G-d and spreading the religious doctrine. Sometimes, the white people would hurt and kill the Indians, while making it look like the Indians are being repented and the...

...﻿Eliza High
Allison Moore
Junior English
25 Sept. 2014
The Native American Experience
Life on the Spokane Indian Reservation is filled with shattered dreams and lost Indian souls drowning the sorrows of their people in alcohol. ReservationBlues, a novel by Sherman Alexie, depicts the story of an unlikely group of Indians coming together to chase their dreams with the help of a magic guitar, Big Mom, and their Indian blood as they struggle with the realities of being Indian in a white world. The protagonist Thomas is the lead singer for their band, Coyote Springs, and a reservation outsider. Victor, Junior, Chess and Checkers are the other band members, each of them as unlikely to be in a band as Thomas. ReservationBlues sheds light on the afflicted life of a modern Spokane Indian, while also bringing attention to the way whites tend treat minorities in America. Alexie uses a combination of cultural and psychological issues, in conjunction with his language in the book to convey the hardships modern Indians face. The alcoholism, loss of culture, and racism drives the Indians into the ground, as it is nearly impossible for them to truly feel as though they belong anywhere.
Most of the cultural issues are coped with in the form of alcoholism on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Their ancestors were pushed onto the reservation and faced so much heartache...

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Escaping the BluesReservationBlues begins with the tortured soul of a musician, and his guitar. The blues musician, a reanimated form of the late Robert Johnson, hands his enchanted instrument to Thomas Builds the Fire. This guitar possesses skill, precision and soul, no matter who its owner is. Johnson had given his soul to the Devil in order to acquire these powers. When Thomas was given this guitar, he too felt the music radiating with its strings. This power, compelled Thomas to create a band of his own. Comprised of two of his former bullies and two women from another tribe, joined together to form Coyote Springs. The band became successful, performing at other reservations and ultimately in New York City where they played for a record company. In a turn of events, the auditions went horribly. The guitar wouldn’t play and the magic that the band had once poured from their original songs was if it hadn’t existed. This was indicative of the plight of Native Americans in what is now the United States. When things seemed to turn up for them, everything tends to fall apart. The bitterness and resentment I imagine that Native Americans feel, is well represented in this book. Throughout this book the theme of escape was present through out each character’s back story. Sherman Alexie's characters illustrate a sort of bittersweet resentment for what it means to be Native American today living...

...﻿ReservationBlues
Sherman Alexie, author of the novel ReservationBlues, explains that at the start of an Indian’s life on a reservation, he or she is destined to be hopeless. First, parental guidance is infrequent leaving many infant Indians with an insufficient childhood. After that, Indian children experience poor education revolved around heaps of stereotyping and bullying from their white classmates and teachers. Next, any sort of entertainment such as television, music, and books are extremely rare. Then leaving their life with a lack of stability and sustainability, an Indian grows up on a reservation with little to no job opportunity. On top of that, reservations are subjected to commodity food; food hardly sufficient and plentiful enough to satisfy a human’s basic needs. All of these factors fill the lives on the reservation with despair, causing most Indians to indulge in alcohol, violence, and suicide. And so, hopelessness within modern Native Americans ultimately leads to self destructive behavior.
Hopelessness eludes few Indians on the Spokanes Reservations, and Samuel Build-The-Fire profoundly exemplifies lost hope. Alexie asserts that when Builds-The-Fires was young, he was named Player of the Year and was interviewed by Walter Cronkite because of his significant basketball talent. Samuel became a hero because of his success, and...

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1 – What statement dos the story make about the relationship of art to life or about the relationship of art to suffering?
Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is a short story written in 1957. It is a story about Sonny, and his relationship to music, his brother, the narrator and the society he is living in. This story takes place in Harlem, New York, which is known to be a major African-Americans residential and cultural place. It is also known for its poverty and place where drugs are frequently used and present. The narrator is Sonny’s older brother. He seems to succeed in life by joining the army, getting married, having three children until the lost of his younger child, Gracie who died of polio. Sonny is the lost brother and son of Harlem. He only lives for one thing and only, to be a musician, and he wants to play his piano and play the jazz. When the narrator and Sonny are finally getting along it seems like it is already too late to save Sonny from the bad habits of using drug. Sonny is a drug addict to heroin. His suffering life controlled by the addiction of heroin is also the life that permits him to live his music to the fullest. This paradox emphasizes the relationship of art to life and art to suffering. James Baldwin illustrates this theme using the blues music, which is a type of folk music developed in the 19th century by African-Americans in the south, often addressing suffering loss.
The art form is...

...Sonny’s blues--Suffering
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Sonny and his brother faced many struggles during the time they lived. Growing up in an environment where poverty, depression, drugs is the escape route in life. Baldwin took two brothers who were initially brought in the same environment and portrayed two opposite spectrums of where two paths can lead. I think it’s ironic how the two brothers are brought up under the same room but they ended up on completely two different paths in the beginning of the story. To make matters worse, the narrator is an algebra teacher while Sonny is a drug addict. For Sonny, heroin is a seductive outlet for his blues, but he knows that in the end it will kill him. Sonny is looking for a way to conceal the blues within him but admits in a letter to his brother that "trouble is the one thing that never does get stopped.'' Music promises freedom from these blues, though, and during Sonny's solo at the end of the...

...How does Baldwin's real-life experience connect to his short story, "Sonny's Blues"?
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In the final scene, Sonny performs some improvisational jazz. What is improvisational music? What do we learn about Sonny through his performance? Explain.
Improvisational music is when the band members just start playing tunes that come out of their heads. These are tunes they have never played or seen before. There is no music for them to read or write down; they just play from their heart. When Sonny starts, it seems like he is unconfident. He does not believe in himself very much until he gets into his rhythm and then he really gets down. It’s like he finally sees that people are going to accept him and not make fun of him.
Professor Henderson observes that Baldwin adds depth and meaning to "Sonny's Blues" through the effective use of symbolism. Identify words or passages that demonstrate Baldwin's use of symbolism, such as of light and darkness,...

...﻿ Ragtime and Blues
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Similarity and difference:
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